Seattle’s Holocaust remembrance and educational organization, Music of Remembrance (MOR) is getting ready to premiere their all new opera, 'Out of Darkness' this May. The new production by Composer Jake Heggie & Librettist Gene Scheer, will be performed in both Seattle and San Francisco. The opera's first act will focus on Aushcwitz prisoner Krystyna Zywulska, with the second act focusing on LGBT Holocaust victims.

Most people can tell the different between music and other kinds of noise, but some genres may be tougher to distinguish than most. In an extreme case of this, a concerned man in Amsterdam thought his neighbor, who was singing along to some opera on his headphones, was a man screaming in agony. From afar, listening to the singing man without the context of the music must have been a terrifying and intense experience -- intense enough, in fact, to call the Amsterdam police. And while music is probably best enjoyed with some level of intensity, the incident finely illustrates how things can quickly go from invigorating to threatening.

United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has died at the of 79. Scaia was well known for being one of the most conservative Justices on the bench. Scalia was also known as a lover of the opera as well as the subject of one. The comedic opera, 'Ginsburg/Scalia,' composed by lawyer and musician Derrick Wang, focus on Scalia’s close friendship with rival Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Despite their drastically different interpretations of the law, Scalia and Ginsburg will forever be remembered as the closest friends on the bench.

It was recently announced the original cast of the hit Broadway musical 'A Light at The Plaza' will reunite for a special one night only reunion benefit performance for the Lincoln Center. Now, it has been revealed that Kelli O’Hara and Victoria Clark will also been reuniting for a brand new production of 'Dido and Aeneas.' The Opera written by Henry Purcell (music) and Nahum Tate (libretto), will also star Anna Christy and Elliot Madore. The production will also feature the world premiere of a companion piece by Michael John LaChiusa ('The Wild Party' *Broadway).

Members of the Young Singers Project may have finally found a remedy opera's reputation for standoffishness with their unique adaptation of Rossini's 'Barber of Seville' for children as young as four years old. The Salzburg Festival, a staple of Austrian cultural heritage since the 1920s, created the Young Singers Project in 2008 as an environment where young artists can hone their craft.

As if a successful hit on the West End wasn’t enough, frontman of The Kinks, Ray Davies, is working on writing an opera about the British band. It seems as if getting The Kinks to the stage is a long-running dream of his. In 2008, Davies created a musical based on The Kinks titled Come Dancing, he then hit it big after Sunny Afternoon, another musical penned by Davies based on the band, traveled to London’s West End. However, he isn’t done yet. Davies has recently announced that he is hoping to create an opera about The Kinks, as well. This is good news for those who love Davies classic tunes such as "You Really Got Me," "Waterloo Sunset" and, of course, the trantastic "L-O-L-A."

Rodion Shchedrin’s rarely performed opera “The Enchanted Wanderer” will open up the 2015 Winter/Spring Season at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. This will be the first performance of the world-renowned St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre two-week residency at BAM.

Opera star Montserrat Caballé has reached a deal with the public prosecutor in Spain to receive a six-month suspended prison sentence and a 240,000 euro — or $291,814.80 — fine for defrauding the Spanish tax office of 500,000 euros — or $607,947.50.
It is unlikely that Caballé will ultimately serve any jail time for tax evasion, given that the sentence is under two years and she has no prior convictions. The Spanish soprano has already returned the defrauded 500,000 euros to the Tax Agency and signed the agreement drawn up by the public prosecutor. The document will have to be ratified before the criminal court judge to avoid the case going to trial.
The 81-year-old Caballé reportedly pretended to be living most of the year in Andorra, which is a tax haven, meaning she obtained substantial reductions in her annual return for the year 2010 on earnings from her live shows and recorded albums.
But in reality, she was living in Barcelona and only visited Andorra for professional reasons.
Sources close to Caballé say the soprano is not in good health and rarely leaves her house.

Performance artist, Marina Abramovic, will be filming a series of short films titled “Seven Deaths” where she will play the part of legendary opera singer Maria Callas. Roman Polanski will be directing the outing.

Composer Lisa Bielawa is creating an opera for the modern world. “ Vireo: The Spiritual Biography of a Witch’s Accuser” is a serial opera. This means that the performance was made to be seen on television or online in short installments which will be released over a period of two years.